To Love or Not to Love?

So, in short, it's been a rough couple of weeks. Several friends that I've had for... quite a long time seem distant. People betray and look down on other people. Some people get jealous and put themselves above other people. Others talk behind our backs, but still call themselves our friends.

1st Corinthians 13 says....

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Now honestly, I can't say that I've followed this to the letter. I've done the exact opposite of love to people I love extremely much... and that, I'm sorry for. However, I'm not the only one. We've all done it.

John 2:24-25 says, "But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. " - Jesus KNEW what was in each person's heart... the opposite of love.

Thankfully, when all else fails, love does not... and God is love.

Thank God for His Marvelous Grace!

As Psalms 73:26 says, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

In the Words of Matt Papa-

"You are all I need
My portion forever
The strength of my heart and my life
My sufficiency
In You I take refuge
You're my all when all is gone".

Praise be to our never-failing, loving God! To God be the Glory Forever and Ever.
We need to become less, so HE can become more.
Amen.